Infinitely Losing My Edge
Yeah, I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
The kids are coming up from behind.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids from South Africa and from Paris.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids whose footsteps I hear when they get on the decks.
I'm losing my edge to the internet seekers who can tell me every member of every good group from 1967 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille kids in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered nineties.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
I can hear the footsteps every night on the decks.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976 at the first Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers started up his first band.
I told him, "Don't do it that way. You'll never make a dime."
I was there.
I was the first guy playing Dual Sessions to the rap kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
We all know.
I was there.
I was there.
I've never been wrong.
But I'm losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent.
And they're actually really, really nice.
I'm losing my edge.
I heard you have a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody.
Every great song by Toni Rubio. All the underground hits.
All Soul Sonic Force tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kerrie Biddell record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yellowson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jandek,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Matthew Halsall,
Scratch Acid,
Tomorrow,
Con Funk Shun,
DNA,
KRS-One,
Todd Rundgren,
Deakin,
Ultra Naté,
T. Rex,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Minutemen,
Letta Mbulu,
Kerrie Biddell,
Lou Christie,
Kurtis Blow,
Bill Wells,
World's Most,
Slave,
Roxette,
The Grass Roots,
Bobby Womack,
The Fugs,
Make Up,
Brothers Johnson,
Rufus Thomas,
Grandmaster Flash,
Gastr Del Sol,
Heaven 17,
Peter and Kerry,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
The Black Dice,
Crispy Ambulance,
Q and Not U,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Lee Hazlewood,
The Blackbyrds,
Mo-Dettes,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Wake,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Fat Boys,
the Fania All-Stars,
Gichy Dan,
Country Teasers,
The Beau Brummels,
The Electric Prunes,
Sällskapet,
Symarip,
The Last Poets,
The Velvet Underground,
Gerry Rafferty,
Dead Boys,
Susan Cadogan,
DJ Sneak,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Buzzcocks,
Bronski Beat,
Bobby Byrd,
Amazonics, Amazonics, Amazonics, Amazonics.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.